Upcoming Workshops
Southwest Washington Writers Conference on September 11 & 12, 2026. Master class: Diamonds in the Rough: Effectively Using Research to Craft Compelling Stories. We’ll look at how research and backstory can be seamlessly blended into plot and dialogue for engaging stories.
Write on the Sound Conference, October 2-3-4, 2026. Connecting from Beginning to End: Building the Supporting Story Structure, practical strategies for crafting the structure that best tells a story and engages and satisfies readers, and The Backstory: Necessary, or an Awkward Dump? best practices for integrating necessary backstory seamlessly while avoiding the dreaded info dump.
On-going Workshops through Allegory Editing
Check Allegory Editing for current schedules of what I’m teaching. You’ll also find out about free author talks, free Ask an Editor events, and past workshops from all our presenters available for purchase at any time.
Past workshops
Comp Titles—Queries and Beyond
How to pick the best comp titles for your project, why you need them, and how to use them throughout writing, querying, and marketing your book.
Crafting the Reader Experience
How to intentionally craft structure, point of view, mood, tone, pace, word choice and style to create a vivid reader experience unique to your story.
How trusting readers to fill in the blanks, follow the action, and understand the motivations of characters helps them become invested in your story.
Writing Distinct Character Voices
Practical strategies to infuse each of your characters with a distinct and memorable voice.
Building a Story Readers Never Want to Leave
How to use the power of fresh imagery to amplify character, setting, mood, theme and story arc.
Making Every Sentence Work Harder
A deep dive into the rich possibilities at the sentence level to make prose more powerful. Presented at Southwest Washington Writers Conference, September 2024 and Write on the Sound Writing Conference, October 2023.